A Thief's old friend
by Noodle-licious
Summary: Originally going to be a Casteshipping story, but I changed my mind. Rated T for blood and other things (I won't say them because they're spoilers, but go with the before-mentioned) . Slightly AU, I changed some of the original happenings but kept the main storyline. Give honest critique and enjoy!
1. Hurt once

Akiefa sat in the sand. Korra, his best friend in all of Egypt, recently passed away. He was never actually allowed to know, but he overheard his parents talking. As soon as he had heard _Korra_ and _dead_ in the same sentence, he ran off. He never even stayed to hear how she died. She was dead, and that was all that mattered to him.

He held a ball in his hands. Him and Korra would toss this around, and eventually get tired and lie back in the dunes, talking about nothing, words just spilling out of their mouths.

It was fun, but Akiefa felt right now that he'd never be happy like that again. He threw the ball in frustration. It rolled away in the gentle breeze, over a sand dune untill it evaded his line of sight. He lied back and cried. What else could he do now? If he went home, his parents would question and scold him. Or try to comfort him, which usually backfired. The ball came back, but he shrugged it off, assuming that the wind had changed direction.

"What's wrong?" Akiefa shot up as he realized that someone was watching him. He was about the same age, possibly younger, judging by his size.

"N-Nothing." He could hardly speak with the lump in his throat. He wiped away tears, and got a better look at the child.

He was Akiefa's age, by the look of his face, but a bit short. He had black hair that stuck up in an unnatural way, but what was even more unnatural was the colors that resided in it. The main color was black, but the tips were a pink tint, and his spikey bangs were almost golden. He was dressed unlike most other people in Kul Elna, instead of simple drapes, he wore a tunic of higher quality cloth and bore many accessories that most people couldn't afford at these times.

"I think you dropped this?" The newcomer sat down next to Akiefa, picked up the ball, and handed it to him.

"No, I threw it away." Akiefa's head felt heavy, his thick hair always trapped sand when he lied down. He hated that feeling.

"Why?" The child asked. He tossed the ball up in the air and caught it. "It looks fine to me. Who throws away a perfectly good ball?"

Akiefa responded by turning away.

"Oh. Is it because you don't know me that you don't want to tell me?"

He thought about this. "No, but can I know your name, anyways?"

"Only if you promise to tell me your problem!"

He hung his head. Whoever this kid was, he sure was stubborn. Akiefa sighed. "Fine."

The boy held out his hand. "Atemu, but you can just call me Atem. Most people do, anyways."

Akiefa stalled, then grabbed it. "Akiefa, but you can just call me Akiefa." He smiled at his own joke. So did Atem.

"So why are you out here?" Atem inquired, still eager to know.

"I guess I could ask you the same. But, i you must know, a very close friend of mine died recently, and-" The lump in his throat returned, "-And this was our play spot."

"Oh, Ra! That's terrible! I'm so sorry!"

"Yah. We came out here almost every day-" He held up the ball "Usually, we played with this, but we have other things, too. Sometimes we just used our imagination." Akiefa proceeded to tell Atem of his and Korra's adventures together. One of their favorite things to do is play tomb robbers. Akeifa would leave and let Korra hide the ball, somewhere on the edge of the city, and he would try to find it, without letting Korra see. One round could drag out from a few seconds to all day. They always joked that he would make an excellent thief when he grew older, to sneak past her like that, with nothing but a hill to hide behind.

Atem stood up. "So, can I try that game with you?"

"Okay, but I warn you, I could sneak past Ra himself if I had to!" They played their game untill the sun began to sink below the horizon. Once Atem had been shown the ropes, he caught on quite fast.

Akiefa shivered. It was getting cold out. Uh, I have to get home before my parents start to worry about me."

Atem nodded. "Oh, yah. Me too."

Akiefa suddenly realized: "Do you even live in town? I've never seen you around."

"I just got here. My father wanted me to see what this place is like, he said it was a bad place, but it can't be if everyone is like you! I'm here with some of his friends, and I'll be staying a while."

"Where are you from?"

"Sorry, I'm no allowed to say."

"Oh." An awkward silence followed.

"Well, bye, I guess." Atem began to run off.

"Wait!" Akiefa shouted. Atem stopped.

"What?"

"Can I- Can I see you again tomorrow? Same time, same place?"

"Atem smiled. "Of coarse."


	2. Korra

**_Okay, for my whole Yu-gi-oh!-fandom-life, I've been spelling Akefia wrong, I've spelled it Akiefa. I still pronounce it that way, 'cause I can't get used to Akefia. :I *Shrugs* Oh well. Enjoy~_**

**_(I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, or any of the characters in it. All I own is this story, Korra's character, and a dream…)_**

Akefia walked into his brick-like home. As soon as he stepped inside, his mother scooped him up in her arms.

"Akefia!" She yelled, "Ra, what I would have done if something happened to you! You _know_ you're not supposed to be out by yourself, no matter _what!_"

"Mum, I wasn't alone. I was with Korra, like always!" He decided to lie, seeing as he didn't want to be punished for being with a stranger _or_ out alone. "What makes you think I wasn't?"

His mother put him down and knelt to his eye level. She was thinking, hard. "Akefia, I know this because… Korra… is dead." Though he knew this was coming, he couldn't help but let a tear fall. His mother wiped it away lovingly, and then continued: "The sickness got to her."

Akefia had forgotten about the sickness. Korra had a disease; the healers said that there was a growth in her body, with no known cure to this evil slowly consuming her. They said that they could take it out, but the risk of her dying during the removal was so great that she would have a better chance of fighting it off herself. Besides this, all that anyone could do was sit down and watch her die. It proceeded slowly, though, and once in a while caused her nearly unbearable pain. Apparently, it was a slow and sometimes painful death.

Akefia fell to his knees, his mother picking him up and cradled him in the crook of her arm. "Would you like to see her?" She asked, and he weakly replied yes. His mother quickly put on her shawl and carried Akefia out the doorway.

They soon arrived at a nearby home, but Korra's father met them at the entrance. "Go away. You have-" He saw the boy in the woman's arms. "Come with me."

The man turned to reveal a mattress filled with straw covered by a blanket. Akefia jumped away from his mother and ran to the bed. Not taking the time to prepare himself for the sight, He threw off the sheet.

Beneath it laid a girl with long black hair, about five years old. She had a round, friendly face, though the rest of her body was wan and emaciated, being a highly-ranked thief, had been able to afford decent burial cloths. This still could not hide the fact that Korra would just be thrown in a hole with other corpses.

Akefia flinched back as though he had been slapped or pushed. He stood up.

"Korra!" He hollered, "Korra, wake up!" He grabbed her shoulders and shook her gently. She was cold. "Korra, fun's over. Stop it. Stop it right now. You wake up this instant." He shook her harder. "Please, Korra! You are strong! You are brave! You can fight off this evil in your body! You can!"

Korra's father pushed him away. "Get your grubby little paws off my daughter's body!" When Akefia began to protest, he knelt down to Akefia's height. His breath carried the scent of ale. He must have been at the bar, drinking away his sorrow. "She's gone. It's too late. She's not coming back, and nothing you can say or do will change that."

Akefia was shocked and saddened by this mans insensitivity. Was he not grieving for his lost offspring, even a little?

"But-" The tears were returning, "She can't die now! Why would the Gods do this to her?"

"Honey, it's time to leave." His mother approached him, "Say goodbye."

"No!" Akefia stood over Korra's cadaver defensively. "Not until she wakes up, or I die with her!" His mother picked him up and proceeded to leave. "Korra! Wake up! Please!" She didn't budge. "KORRA!" He lost sight of his friend when they turned a corner in the middle of the road. Now, all that he could think to do was cry into his mother's breast. She tried her hardest to quiet and comfort him, but found this attempt as useless and quickened her pace to get home.

Akefia ran inside and sat on his lumpy bed. After he had time to relax, his mother walked into his room which was separated from the rest of the house by a curtain hanging from the ceiling.

"Akefia? Can I talk to you?"

"No. I don't want to talk about it." He turned away from her. "I just… No." She left him alone for the rest of the day, only disturbing him to eat.

The next afternoon, when Akefia still hadn't left his room, his mother checked on him. "Are you alright? Can we talk now?" When he was about to argue, she said, "It's not about Korra."

He sighed. "Fine."

"Yesterday, when you went out to play, were you alone? You're not in trouble, please just tell me."

"I wasn't alone."

"So you were with someone?" He nodded. "Really? Who was it?"

Akefia explained Atem, careful not to give his name. He didn't know why, but he felt that she shouldn't know. He didn't want her to.

"That reminds me-" He fling himself to his feet, "-I promised that I'd see him again today. I hope I'm not too late…"

"Be careful!" His mother called to him, "Your father and I were worried about you, last time!"

"But now you know I'm with someone!" And with that, he fled to the edge of the village.

**_I kind of feel bad for giving Korra cancer. But, I guess she needed to go somehow. Heh. His mother doesn't even have a name… I'm such a lazy writer. I have, like, four chapter drafts written out but not typed… R+R if you want to see them come quicker! ~_****_Noodle-licious_**


End file.
